UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
INSTITUTE OF HISTORICAL RESEARCH

CENTRE
FOR
METROPOLITAN
HISTORY

Annual Report 1990-1

Message from the Chairman of the Patrons

1. Director's Report

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE PATRONS OF THE CENTRE

This is the third Annual Report of the Centre, which is now a firmly established force in the world of historical research with a growing reputation for the sound scholarship and wide scope of its varied projects, all contributing to our knowledge of the past. Much progress was made by the hard working staff during the year described here, and it is good to note that their working conditions are now a little less cramped than formerly and may perhaps improve further in the near future.

The existing research programme is going well, challenging new projects are beginning, and there are promising plans for very useful further investigations. All these things require much administrative attention. It is particularly satisfying, therefore, to hear that the funding position for core staff is somewhat better, though the Centre's financial problems are by no means over. Let us hope that the next year will bring yet more improvement on that front, as well as continued academic success.

It was a pleasure to welcome Mr Roger Gibbs, the Chairman of the Wellcome Trust, to our group of patrons this year. Two more new members will join us soon, Mr William Davies, Chairman of the English Tourist Board, and Mr Gerry Martin, Founder of the Renaissance Trust. We look forward to their advice and support for the work of the Centre.

Sir Kit McMahon

[1988-9] [1989-90] {1991-2] [1992-3] [Back to Contents]

1. DIRECTOR'S REPORT

During 1990-91 the Centre for Metropolitan History consolidated and enlarged its research programme, and further developed its role as a focus for the study of London and other metropolises, serving both the University of London and the wider community in Britain and abroad. At different times during the year the Centre had a staff of between nine and eleven persons, and altogether twelve persons were employed there.

Our living conditions at 34 Tavistock Square were further improved by the acquisition of another room. In the medium term, however, the position concerning accommodation is uncertain, since the University is reviewing its policy concerning its properties in Bloomsbury. It would certainly be a great advantage for the Centre to have rooms closer to the main accommodation of the Institute of Historical Research in Senate House, and twice during the year we have undertaken detailed assessments of possible new accommodation. These exercises have made us think carefully about the ways in which we organise our work and space, practical experience which metropolitan historians should be able to put to good use in their scholarship.

Our practical experience of computing has also developed over the year. Changes in the provision of mainframe computing within the University have not been to our advantage, although we continue to enjoy the advice and assistance of the University of London Computing Centre. This, together with the rapid pace of technical change, has confirmed us in our policy of self reliance in computing, using in-house facilities whenever possible. These now offer a powerful and flexible tool for historical research, providing mapping and textual as well as statistical facilities, as the project reports below clearly demonstrate. Even the Director of the Centre now has a personal computer on his desk, and uses it nearly every day.

This year the Metropolitan History Seminar focused on the themes of 'Entertainments' and 'Trade and Industry'. Papers (or entertainments) dealt with labour markets in Edwardian London, Jewish immigrants in the London and New York tailoring industries, scientific instrument makers in London, London and the Industrial Revolution, the port of London since 1945, printing and bookselling in Paris and London, step dancing and hegemony in the London music hall, musical activity in London as revealed by eighteenth-century newspapers, music hall performances of the twentieth century (illustrated), and the film industry. The seminar themes for 1991-2 are 'Food' and 'Transport'.

Several conferences were held during the year. One, on the prices of agricultural products in the metropolitan region, was funded by the Nuffield Foundation, and consisted of a day's intensive discussion by experts of an issue especially relevant to our 'Feeding the City' project. The others were self-financing. One examined newspapers as a source of evidence for metropolitan culture, from a variety of theoretical and statistical points of view. With the Folklore Society we organised a conference on metropolitan folklore, which ranged from Dick Whittington to myths in the modern office, encountering the 'Monster with the Iron Teeth' and the Green Man on the way. At short notice we set up a conference on the 'Design and Setting of St. Paul's' to coincide with the exhibition at the Royal Academy on Sir Christopher Wren and the making of St. Paul's. It was a notable occasion which brought together clergy, architects, and historians in a consideration both of current planning proposals and of the historical setting of the cathedral and its development. We look forward to further collaboration with the Royal

Academy and other bodies, in staging conferences associated with metropolitan exhibitions. At the Anglo-American Conference of Historians, the Centre arranged a session on 'Capital Cities and the State', with papers on Athens and Sparta, Lubeck, London, Paris and Berlin. Finally, the Centre was pleased to lend its support to a conference on the future of Jewish monuments in Britain, a topic of special and currently controversial interest in London. Several of the papers from these conferences will soon be published in The London Journal. Several conferences, both large and small, are being planned for the coming years.

Reports on the Centre's research projects, most of them written by the staff concerned, will be found in the second part of this report. The research programme continues to be as diverse and chronologically wide-ranging as in previous years. Moreover, as the Centre becomes established, it is possible to develop some longer-term strategies concerning issues or requirements in metropolitan history. In practice, of course, the implementation of such strategies will always depend upon the unpredictable outcome of grant applications, or the sudden revelation of opportunities and needs. One of our strategies concerns the fundamental long-range issues associated with the feeding and supply of a great metropolis, and the impact of that demand upon the agriculture and industry of the country as a whole, and even further afield. With that in mind, we made a successful application to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for the funding of a second stage of the 'Feeding the City' project. The application was successful, and the new study, dealing with the later fourteenth century, began in the course of the year. Comparison with the earlier study will enable the team to produce a substantial monograph on the dynamics of agricultural production and marketing in the London region on either side of the Black Death. This will be an important benchmark for studies of other medieval European cities and their regions, and of the London region at later stages of the city's growth.

Another long-term strategy concerns the bibliography and sources of London History. As the bibliography nears completion, we have devoted some thought to projects which will help make intractable sources more accessible to London historians. Among the most notable of those are the records of the courts of law at the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane which promise to contain much material in the business life of London in the eighteenth century, for which evidence is otherwise sparse. With this in mind a pilot investigation of the Exchequer records has been undertaken, funded in part by a donation from Gray's Inn. It will form the basis of a project design and funding application for a full-scale study to begin next year. That study would complement similar investigations recently begun by other scholars of the records of other courts in the same period.

Two new projects which were undertaken during the year likewise form part of a larger consideration of the ways in which, with the growth of business over the nineteenth century, the traditional intermixture of residence and workplace in the City came to be replaced by the pattern of specialized business districts and large-scale buildings which is familiar to us today. The studies of the textile warehousing district and of a sample group of 'financial headquarters', are important building blocks towards a comprehensive account of this aspect of the transformation of Victorian London. At least one more building block, in the form of an investigation of a third business district, matching those of the textile and the financial districts, is required before a balanced account can be presented, and in the course of the coming year it is hoped to raise funds in aid of that study. In the present economic climate, however, it seems unlikely that it will be possible to find money for our proposed related project on 'Office life and environment in London, 1870-1980'.

A major new research project on 'Metropolitan London in the 1690s' began in February 1991. It will result in a comprehensive mapping of the social and economic topography of London at the earliest date for which that is possible.

The findings for the 1690s will make a key contribution to a large and wide-ranging project on 'The Growth of the Skilled Workforce in London, 1500-1750', which is to begin in January 1992. This is to be funded by the Renaissance Trust, as part of its current programme 'The Achievement Project: intellectual and material culture in early modern Europe'. Over this period London's population grew tenfold, and that increase was matched by an expansion in the stock of manufacturing and other skills possessed by its inhabitants. From a city where the highest quality products and skills were imported from overseas, London was transformed into metropolis making technical and luxury commodities which would dominate the world market. This increase in the stock of human capital was one of London's key contributions to the formation of modern Britain. How did it come about? What was the significance of immigration and of ethnic or religious affiliation? What part did formal systems of training, the guild structure, and government policy play in the process? What were the attitudes of craftsmen and intellectuals to these developments and to innovation in general? Above all, why did people behave in the way they did? These are complex questions, relevant to our experience today, as well as to London at a crucial stage of its earlier development.

The 'Skilled Workforce' project will be undertaken by a team of three, and in addition a postgraduate student will be attached to the Centre working towards a thesis on a topic related to the project. This is a very welcome arrangement, which we hope will become an established practice, for it promises to make effective use in training of the skills and experience accumulated at the Centre, and should provide postgraduate students with a special intellectual stimulus by being associated with a pioneering research team. The arrangement had a forerunner this year, when the director of the CMH co-supervised a German research student at the German Historical Institute, working on the German community in medieval London.

Happily, one of the continuing problems of the CMH, that of maintaining continuity in its staff and objectives, was to some extent alleviated this year by means of an internal reorganisation at the Institute of Historical Research, which will provide greater stability for core staff. It was with a view to finding a solution to that problem, and to developing a longer term research programme that we again entered the ESRCs 'Designated Research Centre Competition'.

The director of the CMH was able to pursue some research and writing of his own. For a conference in Amsterdam on 'Cities of Finance' he contributed a paper on 'The financial district of the City of London: continuity and change, 1300-1871', building the work of projects at the Centre. He spoke on 'The Environment of Hanseatic commerce in London' at a conference in Lubeck, and lectured on the long-term development of the metropolis and on 'Shopping in the medieval City' in New York, and on 'The background to the growth of the skilled workforce in London, c.1500-1750', at a conference in London discussing a forthcoming project at the CMH. Towards the end of the year he undertook a substantial investigation of the cornmongers of London c.1300. These specialized traders proved to be remarkably numerous, testimony to the size and degree of organisation of the London grain market at that time. Their trading activities within the region can be reconstructed in some detail, and the study will form part of a monograph on grain production which is being written as part of the 'Feeding the City' project.

There were several staff changes in the year. At the end of his contract John Henderson left us to pursue his studies of Florence and of early modern disease at Cambridge and Rome. At the end of the project on the Jobbers, Bernard Attard returned to Australia, where he will soon begin teaching at the University of New England in Armidale. Iain Black joined us in order to undertake the studies of the textile district and the 'financial headquarters' in the city. They finish in December 1991. Iain then moves to a teaching post at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education, where he will be continuing the pursuit of metropolitan history. Craig Spence joined us from the Museum of London to form one half of the team investigating London in the 1690s. Janet Barnes, who was already with us, forms the other half. Justin Champion, who formally left in 1989-90, was a regular and welcome visitor working on the London plague epidemic of 1665. He also began a preliminary survey of book sales catalogues with a view to designing a forthcoming project on London's role in the 'Republic of letters', 1670-1750. Michael Berlin worked with us for a short while on preparatory work for the Skilled Workforce project.

Our links with other scholars and organisations continued to grow. We especially welcomed the institution of routine meetings with senior staff from the Museum of London: they will facilitate the coordination of our activities and the exchange of information and expertise. We received many enquiries (mostly by post and telephone) from scholars, journalists and members of the public. There was nevertheless a steady stream of personal visitors, including historians from the USA, Canada, the Soviet Union (as it then was), Germany, Hungary, Italy, and Japan. The Associates and the Patrons of the Centre continued to give effective moral support and practical assistance.

[1988-9 Report] [1989-90 Report] [1991-2 Report] [1992-3 Report] [1993-4 Report] [1994-5 Report] [1995-6 Report] [1996-7 Report] [1997-8 Report] [Back to Contents]

2. PROJECT REPORTS

i FEEDING THE CITY: LONDON'S IMPACT ON THE AGRARIAN ECONOMY OF SOUTHERN ENGLAND, c.1250-1400

During the period covered by this year's report the Feeding the City project came to the end of its first phase of existence and stood poised to begin a second. The three-year period of work funded by the Leverhulme Trust on London and its agrarian hinterland circa 1300 finished at the end of August 1991. A successful application to the Economic and Social Research Council, however, means that the study can be extended to the later fourteenth century; 'Feeding the City II' began on the 1st of October and will run for 34 months. As well as forming a valuable study in its own right this second phase of work will allow comparisons to be made between the pre- and post-Black Death economies of the London region.

Data collection, interspersed with preliminary analysis and writing, continued until the end of January 1991. The resulting computer database of demesne accounts, annual rolls which in immense detail record the practice of agriculture on those parts of manors managed directly by their lords, contains information from a total of 461 accounts dating between 1288 and 1315. These relate to 204 different manors in the ten counties around London which form the project's study area.

Demesne accounts are scattered through a large number of archives, and can be highly time-consuming to locate. One by-product of the project has been the gathering together of information on the location and condition of a large number of these documents. Together with Olwen Myhill the researchers have assembled a catalogue of Kentish demesne accounts, which has been submitted for publication.

Fig. 1. Location of manors with demesne accounts 1288-1315 included in the Feeding the City database

The distribution of the project's database manors is shown in Figure 1. It will be seen that some parts of the study area are markedly better served by surviving documentation than others. Thus, while parts of Oxfordshire, Kent and the Thames valley are well represented in the database, Bedfordshire, north Buckinghamshire and west-central Essex have much poorer coverage.

In large part this reflects the patterns of land-ownership of the great estates comprising many manors, whose archives have survived relatively intact - such as Canterbury Cathedral Priory, Westminster Abbey and the bishopric of Winchester - and the relative paucity of accounts for lay manors, particularly those held by lesser lords.

Nevertheless the database thus assembled enables us to discover a great deal about patterns of land-use and variations in productivity in the London hinterland of c.1300, and about the production and disposal of foodstuffs, fuel and timber in both market and non-market contexts. It was to the investigation of these issues which the researchers turned from February onwards.

Fig. 2. Levels of analysis and interpretation

The analysis and interpretation of the material contained in the accounts database, and in the database compiled earlier in the project from the evidence of inquisitions post mortem (systematic surveys of land uses and values), can be conceptualised as forming a number of interconnected levels. In Figure 2 this has been represented as a simple three-tier structure. Level 1 here represents the material basis of agricultural activity - the use of landed resources on our 2W demesnes in terms of acreages devoted to different crops, relative importance of arable compared to grassland and other resources, size and composition of livestock herds, number and type of animals used for traction etc. The second level is concerned with the disposal of agricultural produce; with sales and non-market transfers, components of manorial income, and with price levels. At level 3 a synthesis is attempted in order to explain the patterns of production and circulation of agricultural produce in terms of a provisioning system with the metropolis - London - at its centre. Specific themes emerge within this overall undertaking, such as the scale and organization of the grain trade. At this synthetic level information from other, less systematic sources is drawn upon to complement the statistical interrogation of the computer databases.

Investigation of total sown acreages and proportions of the total devoted to specific crops and combinations of crops has been undertaken. The structure of the accounts database allows these-questions to be posed at the level of the individual annual account; manor means can then be calculated, and statistics derived at various higher levels - county, estate etc. These analyses point towards significant contrasts within the study area in the proportions of demesne land under different crops and combinations of crops. In part such contrasts are explicable in terms of environmental factors, but socio-economic and institutional influences seem clearly implicated in others. Thus, while in most counties no more than 6 or 7% of sown acreage was devoted to cultivation of legumes, in Kent this rises to 21% and seems to be linked to the more intensive and productive cropping regimes found in that county. Again, relatively high percentages of the sown area in Middlesex and Surrey were devoted to cultivation of spring barley, and the influence of metropolitan demand for high quality malting grains may be suspected.

Disposal of produce has been investigated in a number of different ways. For some agricultural products - particularly grains - the proportions of the total used in different ways can be investigated for each manor. The percentage of total crop used for seed, consumed by humans or animals on the manor, malted, sold or sent off the manor (usually to estate headquarters or other manors) can be calculated, and spatial variations mapped.

An alternative method of analysis, particularly useful when total production is not known, is to calculate the contribution of income from sale of particular products barley, cheese, firewood etc - as a proportion of total income for the manor derived from sales. Geographical theory suggests that specialization in the commercial production of certain commodities will have a spatial dimension, deriving from distance from principal market or markets, intensity of labour inputs and transport costs. To some extent this spatial specialization is indeed reflected in our analyses of the income-structure of our 204 demesnes. Thus, as Figure 3 indicates, firewood, a bulky but vital product for the metropolitan economy, was commercially produced on a significant scale on a number of manors relatively close to the city. Further away from London commercial firewood production seems to have been of little or no importance, except in the vicinity of Canterbury.

Fig. 3. Mean income from the sale of faggots

For many of the 8,577 sales of all types of product recorded in the accounts database unit prices can be calculated. For wheat a study has been made of spatial variations in local price levels compared to prices current in London. This exercise gained greatly from the expert advice of a group of scholars who attended a one-day conference on the project's price material at the Institute of Historical Research in February 1991. The full implications of the results produced have yet to be assimilated, but a number of important features can be discerned. Firstly, price levels were generally higher in those areas accessible to water-borne links with the metropolitan and other markets (see Fig. 4). Thus, in Oxfordshire prices fall away quite markedly in the north and west of the county beyond the sphere of influence of Henley, the effective head of navigation on the Thames. Secondly, there appear to be groups of places which display a relatively high degree of 'similarity' to the London price. One inference that can be drawn is that these represent areas most closely or regularly linked to the supply of wheat to the metropolis; however, the picture is complex and many possible influences must be considered.

Fig. 4. Parts of project study area with average wheat prices over 90% of London price

Analysis of spatial variation in sale prices of animals and animal products is more problematic given the great variety in condition and age, in the case of animals, and weight and size in the case of products such as cheese.

One exercise carried out at an early stage was to calculate mean sale price per head of some of the more common animals for the whole study area (Fig. 5). Comparative analysis of the sale price of different animals, even based on this fairly crude measure, reveals some interesting facts. Pigs emerge as very valuable animals, the mean sale price of a porcus being twice that for an adult sheep and 2.5 times that for a calf. Similarly the relative importance of the goose is indicated by its mean sale price, which at 4.6d per head is over one-third that for a calf and over two-thirds that for a lamb.

Fig. 5. Mean sale price of animals (old pence)

The securing of funding for a second phase of the project means that many of the issues explored for the period around 1300 can in due course be compared with the situation in the later 14th century. This should shed light on many aspects of the development of the London region at a period of rapidly changing living standards and a radically changing balance between population and land.

During the past year the researchers presented a number of conference and seminar papers; at the 'L'Homme et L'Animal' conference on the theme 'Animals and their Products in Trade and Exchange' held in Oxford in November 1990; to the regular seminar of the Department of English Local History at Leicester; and, most recently, at the annual conference of the Surrey Council for Local History in Guildford.

The first three years of this project was funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The second three-year phase of the project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Ref. No. R000233157)

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ii EPIDEMICS AND MORTALITY IN THE PRE-INDUSTRIAL CITY: FLORENCE AND LONDON COMPARED

This project compares the impact of the last outbreaks of plague on two of the larger metropolitan centres in seventeenth-century Europe: Florence in 1630-1 and London in 1665. The aim is to establish the temporal and spatial pattern of the epidemics within each city, and to measure their impact in terms of the wealth and status of the victims, and the social and physical environment in which they lived. Comparison of these results from two cities which have some similarities, but also distinct differences in their geographical setting and in their social and physical makeup, should throw into sharp relief some of the key factors in the spread of epidemic disease.

The approach adopted for each city has been the intensive study of households and victims in sample areas representing a range of conditions. For Florence these are provided by the single large parish of S. Lorenzo, where about 15 per cent of the city's population lived. London parishes were smaller, and ten of them, containing perhaps 10 per cent of the population overall, have been studied in this way. In addition, the 'Bills of Mortality' have been used to provide an overview of the pattern of mortality in every London parish over the period 1655-65.

The details and some of the principal findings of the project were described in the report for 1989-90. At the beginning of this year the two principal researchers on the project, John Henderson and Justin Champion, came to the end of their contracts. They have continued to work on some further analysis of the databases which were completed before they left, and on writing up. Progress has necessarily been slower than before, but work on the Florentine material has gone on steadily, and a short monograph on the very extensive findings for London is now being written, and has been provisionally accepted for publication.

Fig. 6. Payments to infected households in St Margaret's Westminster, 1665

Between October 1990 and March 1991 Janet Barnes also worked on the project, examining materials concerning the parish of St. Margaret Westminster. On account of its defective burial register, that parish cannot be investigated in the same way as the main group of London parishes chosen for detailed study. On the other hand, there are good tax data available for the 3,132 assessed households in the parish, and the parish churchwardens' accounts for 1665 include a detailed record of the payments made from week to week towards the relief of the poor and their families who were afflicted by plague. The accounts name the head of the 'infected' household who received relief, and give the number of other members of the family (see Fig. 6). A total of about 3,000 individuals is recorded in this way. The place of residence and the status of many of these families can be identified by means of the tax records.

The process of linkage, and the further analyses arising from it are not yet complete, but it is already clear that the effort devoted to this remarkable body of information will be well worthwhile, especially for the way in which it complements the main series of parish studies. It had already been established, for example, that during the plague year women were subject to a higher rate of mortality than men. The 'Crisis Mortality Ratios' for 1665 were 5.87 for men and 6.55 for women. The significance of this was far from clear: it seemed unlikely that women were biologically more susceptible to-plague than were men. The Westminster evidence reveals that among the poor many more women than men received relief as heads of households where one or more people were infected with plague: 58% of payments were to women and 42% to men. Of payments to women, the majority (70%) were to those living on their own. One likely explanation might be, therefore, that during the epidemic many men deserted their female partners and fled from London. Whether those men contributed to the maintenance of their former households from anything they may have earned while they were away from London is not known; but it is certain that the burden of keeping families together through the crisis fell very heavily on women. The nature of the social response, at household level, to the great plague of 1665 is thus beginning clearly to emerge from the analysis of the records, and will be further explored.

This two-year project consisted of two separate but related studies, one funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (concerning Florence and London; Ref. No. R000231192), the other funded by the Wellcome Trust.

[1988-9 Report] [1989-90 Report] [Publications arising from project] [Back to Contents]

iii METROPOLITAN LONDON IN THE 1690s

In the late seventeenth century London was the largest city in Europe and, possibly, the world, its population having grown from around 50,000 in the early sixteenth century to around 500,000. In the final decade London became one of the node points of the new system of world trade and finance with, for example, the flotation of the Bank of England in 1694 and the incorporation of the new East India Company in 1698. It was now truly metropolitan: to the west it was expanding as a result of the growth of national administrative and political functions; to the south and east it developed to meet the dramatic increase in industrial, commercial and maritime activities.

This project, which began in February 1991 and is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, is designed to enable a critical examination of the social and economic structure of the metropolis in the 1690s, using a range of information gathered from various sources. Amongst these, the 1693/4 'Four Shillings in the Pound Aid' was raised to fund King William's involvement in European wars. The intensive demands of war finance generated records which, for the first time in London's history, provide a nearly complete coverage of its householders at a single moment in time. Assessments list tax-payers by name, with the value of their real and personal property, both for the City and for the wider metropolitan area outside. The valuations of personal property will be tested against those provided by an extensive set of probate inventories. Poll Tax assessments of 1692 will provide details of household structure and occupations for the City, a survey of which has already been undertaken by James Alexander. For the area outside the city, for which no Poll Tax returns survive, parish registers will be used as a source of information on the occupations of householders. Other records will be consulted for additional information and verification.

Fig. 7. London in the 1690s: map showing areas containing 400-500 households

An extensive database of inhabitants will be the most immediate product of this research, supplying a basis for future studies. The assessments were made within parishes or, in the case of the City, wards which were sub-divided into taxation districts. The assessments also frequently include street names and so for the purposes of the analysis the parishes have, where possible, been sub-divided into discrete areas each covering some 400 to 500 households (Fig. 7).

Figure 7 was generated using a dedicated mapping package (QuickMap v.2.0) developed by the Geography Department of University College London and Mapics Ltd. The use of QuickMap will allow the integration of quantitative and fiscal data within a sequence of digitised maps. The base map has been produced from a range of contemporary parish and ward maps which were re-adjusted according to the more accurately surveyed 19th century Ordnance Survey maps.

The assessments indicate that there were around 55,000 householders contributing to the Four Shillings Aid in the metropolitan area north of the Thames. No assessments survive for Southwark and Lambeth. This list is thought to represent all those who either owned or rented property or were particularly noted as lodgers in possession of goods or profits. The assessments also make note of various types of property, for example: stables, coachhouses, brewhouses, fields, tenter grounds, wharfs, warehouses, schools and meeting houses, among many others. Reference was also made to empty houses, to waste land and to houses in the course of construction or demolition. This information may be used to indicate those areas of the metropolis which were in the process of re-development or expansion.

Fig. 8. Part of a duplicate assessment of the Four Shillings in the Pound Aid for the parish of St. Marylebone (Reproduced by kind permission of the Corporation of London Record Office)

Although the collection of assessment data continues, it is already possible to demonstrate a limited number of basic variables in map form. Figure 9 shows the area in square kilometres of each of the mapped analytical sub-divisions and thus can be seen as an indicator of household density. The combination of such maps with a range of contemporary topographical information will facilitate a striking demonstration of detailed and sophisticated analyses. It is intended that these results will be published primarily in the form of an atlas, accompanied by a number of articles, presenting and interpreting the social and economic structure of metropolitan London in the 1690s.

Fig. 9. Area in sq. km. of analytical sub-divisions

The data gathering exercise for the Four Shilling Aid will soon be completed. it will then be possible to link occupations from a number of suitable parish registers, and the 1692 Poll Tax records, by the use of name and location information. Probate inventories for the metropolitan area will subsequently be analysed in order to provide a control on the reliability of the assessment and parish register data.

This 32-month project is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Ref. No. R000232527).

[1991-2 Report] [1992-3 Report] [1993-4 Report] [Publications arising from project] [Back to Contents]

iv THE GROWTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE TEXTILE MARKETING DISTRICT OF THE ClTY OF LONDON c.1780-1914

[Publications arising from project] [Back to Contents]

v FINANCIAL HEADQUARTERS IN THE CITY OF LONDON c. 1840-1914

This project builds on the completed study 'From Counting-House to Office', which traced the detailed social, economic and physical changes involved in the evolution of the central financial district of the City down to 1871, in a manner similar to the study of the textile district outlined above. The project concentrates on four of the first generation, large-scale headquarters erected for banks and insurance companies in the financial district, between the 1830s and the 1860s. The buildings under investigation are listed in Table 3, below (see also Figs. 11-14).

The following set of questions is being asked of each building in turn, in order to build up a detailed case study of the development of each site. Firstly, how was each site assembled and what tenurial arrangements prevailed? Secondly, which architects were commissioned to design these new palatial head offices, and why were they chosen? Thirdly, and directly related to this, to what extent were particular conscious architectural elements incorporated into their designs? Fourthly, who built the offices, what materials were chosen and how much did each building cost? Fifthly, how were these property developments financed and to what extent were speculative elements, such as building extra lettable office space, incorporated into both financial and physical planning?

The sources on which this research project is based include the following: company board minutes (giving details of discussions about new premises); financial accounts (to determine the costs of materials and building); rate and rent books (to determine who was leasing property and at what costs); architects' plans and papers (to determine the internal structure and symbolic aspects of design); papers and press cuttings or articles from contemporary journals (giving details of contemporary architectural criticism and reaction to the new buildings and styles of high finance).

In addition to completing a case study of each building, the project will place them in context by considering the wider networks of social power and patronage in the architectural world of the mid-Victorian City. Thus, the similarities and differences in form and function present within this group of buildings will be examined, to draw out the functional and symbolic distinctions between different types of financial institution. Reinforcing this work, the influence of central institutions such as the Bank of England on the shape and design of financial headquarters in this period will be explored.

The following sketch of the London and Westminster Bank demonstrates some of these themes in greater detail.

The London and Westminster Bank, Lothbury, 1838

The new banking house for the London and Westminster Bank was built in 1838, to the design of two eminent architects of the day: Professor C.R. Cockerell and Sir William Tite (see Fig. 11). As each architect had his own constituency within the bank's Board of Directors, the suggestion was made that they collaborate on the design. In the event, Cockerell produced the restrained and powerful facade, while Tite concentrated on designing a distinctive domed interior - both significantly modified in the remodelling of the bank in the 1860s. The builders were Samuel Grimsdale & Sons who undertook to build the new bank for £15,654. This, together with the purchase of the freehold of 41 Lothbury from Messrs J.B. Pearce & Sons the Blackwell Hall Factors for a total of £23,750, less an allowance of £1,400 for old materials sold and £1,000 from the City's Sewer Commissioners for ceding and eight-foot strip of ground for improvements, gave the total cost of the new bank at £37,004.

General reaction to the new building, from all sides, was extremely favourable, as the following extract from Timbs Curiosities of London (1855) illustrates:

This banking house, facing the north-east angle of the Bank of England, in Lothbury, has some striking architectural merits. It was completed in 1838; architects, Cockerell and Tite. It occupies eighty feet frontage, and ninety feet depth; the front, of Portland stone, is one plane, or general face, and proves that a splendid building may be erected without columns or pilasters. The windows are set, as it were, between piers; the lower ones divided by bronzed candelabra, and the upper ones having side panels, decorated with caducei and fasces, expressive of the "vis unita fortior" of the joint stock association of the establishment. The attic story has a cornice and balustrade, which give dignity to the whole facade. At the extremities are bold piers, surmounted by sitting figures - the City of London at the east end, and the City of Westminster at the west; both modelled by Cockerell, and executed by Nichol. The interior... [by Tite] is very original: the principal apartment, the "Town Bank", exceeds even the offices of the Bank of England in height; it is a square of about thirty-four feet, as high as the entire building, fiftynine feet six inches. East and west are aisles to a portion of this height, with balustraded galleries; their sides being divided from the centre by an arcade springing from Doric columns; and the vast hall, surrounded closely with lofty buildings, is mainly lighted by a dome and semicircular Diocletian windows from above.

This six-month project is funded by donations from Barclays Bank plc, National Westminster Bank plc, Sun Alliance Group, and The Guardian Royal Exchange Charitable Trust.

[Publications arising from project] [Back to Contents]

vi BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PRINTED WORKS ON THE HISTORY OF LONDON TO 1939

Collection of monograph and article references for inclusion in this bibliography was finished according to schedule by the late summer of 1991, and editing work has now begun. The total number of entries reached just over 25,000 but this will be reduced a little during the editing process. Heather Creaton and Tony Trowles completed the collecting of material from the borough local history libraries, the final port of call being the Bishopsgate Institute Library, which alone yielded over 1400 useful references. We owe a great debt of gratitude to all the library staff we met on our travels. Their advice and practical help has been invaluable, and their patience with us and our portable computer exemplary. Space in many local history libraries is limited and staff time at a premium, but we were always made welcome and given every assistance.

Of the final total of entries, roughly 6% relate to the Middle Ages in London, 10% to the early modern period, 13% to between 1700-1850 and 26% to 1850-1939. The remaining 45% fall into our "general" period section, covering two or more of the previous categories. The pattern of historical writing emerging from the data has not revealed any startling trends in coverage. As might have been expected, far more books and articles have been written about nineteenth- and twentieth-century London than, for example, about the early modern period. Within most subject fields the medieval period is least well represented, and the post-1850 category has the most titles, though there are exceptions such as "music", where the eighteenth century has the lengthiest list. A more typical example is the classification "trade", with a total of 1908 items, 123 of which are medieval, 341 early modern, 337 from the period 1700-1850 and 380 from 1850-1939 (the rest cover wider periods). The database (Cardbox-Plus) can be searched on period, subject classification and keywords as well as on author and, if required, publisher, date and journal title.

Fig.15. London history publications by decade as reflected in the CMH Bibliography

Writing on London history has become a very popular occupation over the last hundred years, and Figure 15 shows the expansion of output by decade from the 1890s, in terms of monographs (or pamphlets) and journal articles. The bibliography is, of course, selective, but the figures give a general indication of trends. The figures for the 1990s are extrapolated from those for 1990 alone and it will be seen that they possibly indicate the start of a slight overall fall in quantity, though the proportion of articles as against single titles continues to rise.

The bibliography reveals the extremely wide range of history writing about London, and the enduring popularity of local history throughout the metropolitan area. It also illuminates changing preoccupations and fashions of approach to the subject, from discursive late nineteenth-century titles beginning Memorials of old ... or Wanderings in..., through the interwar vogue for titles extolling The romance of... (some very unlikely subjects) to the much sterner studies of poor law institutions and public health in the sixties and seventies, and the eighties revival of interest in the history of the music hall, the cinema, and death. One consistent favourite since the late nineteenth century has been the nostalgic memoir about growing up in London. The growth in this type of publication since the nineteen sixties has been very marked, often resulting from local oral history projects.

As the bibliography has become better known, we have received an increasing number of enquiries about it from a wide range of historians. Wherever possible we supply a print-out of the relevant sections. Recent requests have come from people working on Lincoln's Inn, on tributaries of the Thames, on a comparative study of Jewish education in the East End and New York before 1914 and on horse-related industries. Colleagues at the Centre and at the Institute also make frequent use of the database, and as in previous years we have used it to produce a list of new titles for inclusion in the London Archive Users' Forum Newsletter, and a similar listing for the London Journal. Although our cut-off date for new material was the end of 1990 we are maintaining a supplementary file, adding the latest titles as we hear of them. Guildhall Library, the Greater London History Library and the Bishopsgate Institute Library have been particularly helpful with this.

The editing and indexing of this substantial body of material will take over a year. Classification will be by subject section, subdivided by period, and the published work is expected to take the form of a three volume set, including a detailed analytical index. Discussions with the Library Association's publishing arm, Library Association Publishing Ltd, about arrangements for its publication, are still in progress.

This continuing project has been assisted by grants from the ESRC (Ref. No.s R000231020 and R000232425), the Corporation of London, English Heritage and the Society of Antiquaries.

[1988-9 Report] [1989-90 Report] [1991-2 Report] [1992-3 Report] [1993-4 Report] [1994-5 Report] [1995-6 Report] [1996-7 Report] [1997-8 Report] [Publications arising from project] [Back to Contents]

vii THE JOBBING SYSTEM OF THE LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE: AN ORAL HISTORY

The year 1990-91 was not a profitable one for market-makers in the City of London, and our attempt at raising further funds for this project met with only limited success, in the form of a second donation from the International Stock Exchange. This made it possible to complete the archive of interviews and transcriptions, and, by continuing to employ Bernard Attard as researcher and interviewer on the project until 31 July 1991, to make some progress with background research on the jobbing system and with writing.

A large part of the effort devoted to any oral history project is that required to produce accurate transcripts. Our project on the jobbing system proved to be no exception. The forty-two interviews, amounting to seventy-three hours recorded on tape, came to approximately 650,000 words in transcript. During the eight months covered by this report the remaining half of that material was transcribed for the first time (by Olwen Myhill and by a part-time transcriptionist), the first transcripts of all the interviews were checked against the recordings and corrected (by Bernard Attard), and the corrected transcripts were finally read and approved, and sometimes further amended, by the interviewees. We are most grateful to David Kynaston for his help with the essential process of establishing transcripts (and annotations to them) which are historically correct, and above all to the interviewees for their prompt return of transcripts and for placing only minimal restrictions on public access to the interviews.

Tapes of the interviews have been deposited at the British Library National Sound Archive, where they are available for public consultation. The National Sound Archive also holds a copy of the transcripts on disk. A paper copy of the transcripts is available for consultation at the Centre for Metropolitan History. At the time of writing only four interviews remain to be cleared by the interviewees, so that before long the archive will be complete.

The scope of the project, and the range of topics covered in the interviews, a number of which vividly convey the atmosphere and excitement of the Stock Exchange floor as well as the careers and fortunes of individual jobbers were described in last year's report. These subjects are covered more fully in an article shortly to be published in the journal Oral History. A second article is being written which will consider the jobbing system from an historical perspective, using the interviews and documentary materials as sources. It will concentrate on the period since 1945, but also portray the system as it has operated since the late nineteenth century.

The project has successfully demonstrated the role that oral history can play in rescuing information about the City's past which would not otherwise survive. It has shown, too, how historians can contribute to an understanding of recent developments. There are many other aspects of the City's financial and commercial life which could be investigated in a similar way.

This twenty-two rnonth project was funded by the International Stock Exchange, Barclays de Zoete Wedd and Warburg Securities.

[1991-2 Report] [Publications arising from project] [Back to Contents]

APPENDICES

I

PATRONS

Chairman
SIR KIT MCMAHON, Director of Taylor Woodrow International Ltd, (formerly Chairman of Midland Bank plc)

MR ROGER G. GIBBS, Chairman, The Wellcome Trust

SIR BRIAN JENKINS, F.C.A., The Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor of London

MR STUART LIPTON, Stanhope Properties plc

THE LORD PALUMBO, Chairman of the Arts Council

MR MICHAEL ROBBINS, C.B.E., formerly Chairman of the Board of Governors, Museum of London

MR TED ROWLANDS, M.P.

THE RT. REV. J.L. THOMPSON, Bishop of Bath & Wells (formerly Bishop of Stepney)

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II

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Chairman
THE DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTE (Professor P.K. O'Brien, B.Sc. (Econ.), M.A., D.Phil.)

G. ALDERMAN, M.A., D.Phil., Professor of Politics and Contemporary History, Royal Holloway and Bedford New College

T.C. BARKER, M.A., Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Economic History

(To 31 July 1991) B.M.S. CAMPBELL, B.A., Ph.D., Lecturer in Economic and Social History, The Queen's University of Belfast

M.J. DAUNTON, B.A., Ph.D., Professor of Modern History, University College London

R.J. DENNIS, B.A., Ph.D., Lecturer in Geography, University College London

P. EARLE, B.Sc. (Econ.), Ph.D., Reader in Economic History, London School of Economics

N.B. HARTE, B.Sc. (Econ.), Senior Lecturer in Economic History, University College London

M.M. HEBDITCH, M.A., F.S.A., F.M.A., Director, Museum of London

J.M. LANDERS, B.A., Ph.D., Fellow, A11 Souls' College, Oxford

M.H. PORT, M.A., B.Litt., F.S.A., Professor of Modern History, Queen Mary and Westfield College

F. A WRIGLEY. M.A.. Ph.D., F.B.A., Fellow, All Souls' College, Oxford

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III

ASSOCIATE SUPERVISORS OF RESEARCH PROJECTS

BRUCE M.S. CAMPBELL, B.A., Ph.D. (The Queen's University of Belfast), 'Feeding the City'

MARTIN DAUNTON, B.A., Ph.D. (University College, London), 'The Textile Marketing District' and 'Financial Headquarters'

PETER EARLE, B.Sc. (Econ.), Ph.D. (London School of Economics), 'Metropolitan London in the 1690s'

JOHN HENDERSON, B.A., Ph.D. (CMH and Wolfson College, Cambridge), 'Epidemics and Mortality'

DAVID KYNASTON, M.A., Ph.D., 'The Jobbing System'

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IV

STAFF OF THE CENTRE

Director: DEREK KEENE, M.A., D.Phil. (Oxford)

Deputy Director (and Editor of Bibliography): HEATHER CREATON, B.A., M.Phil. (London), A.L.A.

Administrative and Research Assistant: OLWEN R. MYHILL, B.A. (Birmingham), Dip. R.S.A.

Feeding the City: London's Impact on the Agrarian Economy of Southern England. c.1250-1350:
Researchers: JAMES A. GALLOWAY, M.A., Ph.D. (Edinburgh); MARGARET MURPHY, B.A., Ph.D. (Trinity College, Dublin)

Epidemics and Mortality in the Pre-industrial City: Florence and London Compared (to 31 March 1991):
Associate Supervisor: JOHN HENDERSON, B.A. (Newcastle), Ph.D. (London)
Researcher: JUSTIN A.I. CHAMPION, M.A., Ph.D. (Cambridge)
Data Inputting Assistant: JANET BARNES, B.Sc. (Soc.), B.Sc., M.A. (London)

Metropolitan London in the 1690s:
Researchers: JANET BARNES, B.Sc. (Soc.), B.Sc., M.A. (London); CRAIG G. SPENCE, B.Sc. (Surrey), M.A. (London), M.I.F.A.

The Textile Marketing District of the City of London c. 1780-1914 and Financial Headquarters in the City. c. 1850-1914:
Researcher: IAIN S. BLACK, B.A. (Sheffield), Ph.D. (Cambridge), F.R.G.S.
Data Inputting Assistant: SHUNA BROWN

Bibliography of Printed Works on London History to 1939:
Researcher: TONY TROWLES, B.A. (C.N.A.A.)

The Jobbing System of the London Stock Exchange: an Oral History (to 31 July 1991):
Researcher: BERNARD P. ATTARD, B.A., M.A. (Melbourne), D.Phil. (Oxford)

BERNARD ATTARD's D.Phil thesis was on the History of the Australian High Commissioner's Office in London, a considerable amount of which has concerned Australian capital raising in the City of London. JANET BARNES's current research interest is in medieval medicine; her M.A. dissertation was on 'Signs of subversion in the Roman de la Rose'. IAIN BLACK's Ph.D. thesis involved the reconstruction of correspondence networks and the circulation of money capital in early industrial England. In January 1992 he will take up the post of Lecturer in Human Geography at Cheltenham and Gloucester College of Higher Education. JUSTIN CHAMPION's Ph.D research at Cambridge was on seventeenth century English political thought; his general interest lies in the ideological origins of the English Enlightenment; he is now a lecturer in History at La Sainte Union College, Southampton. He is also editor of Early Modern History, a new magazine for A-level students and first-year undergraduates. After varied experience as a reference librarian, HEATHER CREATON edited Writings on British History for many years; in addition to her bibliographical work she runs a regular introductory course for new postgraduate students. JIM GALLOWAY's Ph.D. research examined industry, wealth and mobility in Colchester and its region, 1310-1560; he has broad interests in medieval and early modern historical geography, including the issues of urban development, and industrial and agrarian change. JOHN HENDERSON has written widely on the history of lay devotion, charity and the poor, and plague in late medieval and renaissance Italy, and in particular Florence; he is a Fellow of Wolfson College, Cambridge. DEREK KEENE has written extensively on the society, economy, topography and archaeology of medieval and early modern towns, and especially on Winchester and London; he is a Royal Commissioner on the Historical Monuments of England. MARGARET MURPHY's main research interests lie within the field of ecclesiastical history; her Ph.D. thesis and publications examine the archbishopric of Dublin in the middle ages, covering such themes as piety, administration, and church and society. Apart from grappling with the Centre's computers and administration, OLWEN MYHILL's main historical interest is the impact of religious nonconformity on rural society in the nineteenth century. CRAIG SPENCE forrnerly was an archaeologist at the Museum of London, where he directed a number of excavations. He is currently undertaking an M.Phil. researching sudden death in the early modern city. TONY TROWLES has research interests in the cultural history of London, especially during the eighteenth century; he has just submitted a D.Phil thesis on the role of the ode in English musical life. 1660-1800.

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V

PUBLICATIONS

Bernard P. ATTARD, 'The Australian High Commissioners', Working Papers in Australian Studies, no. 68 (1991)

Heather CREATON, 'Quarter sessions records', Early Modern History I, no. 1 (1991), pp. 19-20

James A. GALLOWAY and Margaret MURPHY, 'Feeding the City: Medieval London and its agrarian hinterland', The London Journal, 16, no. 1 (1991), pp. 3-14

Derek KEENE, 'Metal-founding in Winchester during the early Middle Ages: the written and numismatic evidence' (pp. 165-6); 'The textile industry' (pp. 200-14); 'Harbicks' (pp. 239-40); 'Tanning' (pp. 243-5)' 'The use of wood in medieval Winchester' (pp. 270-2); 'A possible pulley-brake' (pp. 302-3); 'A plasterer's float' (pp. 303-4); 'Shingles' (pp. 320-6); 'Miscellaneous wooden building components' (p. 327); 'Later medieval window glass from Wolvesey Palace: the site and documentary evidence compared' (pp. 424-8); 'Wooden pegs, spikes, and bungs' (pp. 454-9); 'Miscellaneous wooden tools' (pp. 461-3); 'Whipping top' (pp. 7067); 'Butter churn' (pp. 817-18); 'Wooden vessels' (pp. 959-67); 'Wooden furniture' (pp. 969-71); 'Unidentified wooden objects' (pp. 1147-9); all in M. Biddle et al., Object and Economy in Medieval Winchester (Winchester Studies 7.ii, Oxford, 1990)

Derek KEENE, 'Shops and shopping in medieval London', in L.M. Grant (ed.), Medieval Art, Architecture and Archaeology in London (British Archaeological Association, 1990), pp. 29-40

Derek KEENE, 'Introduction: the Mercers and their Hall before the Great Fire', in J. Imray (ed. A. Saunders), The Mercers' Hall (London Topographical Society publication no. 143, 1991), pp. 1-20, 437-8.

Craig SPENCE and Francis GREW (eds.), Museum of London, Department of Urban Archaeology, The Annual Review 1989 (Museum of London, 1990)

Craig SPENCE (ed.), Archaeological Site Manual 2nd edition (Museum of London, 1990)

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VI

SOURCES OF FUNDING

a) Projects:

Bank of England
Barclays Bank plc
Barclays de Zoete Wedd
Corporation of London
Economic and Social Research Council
English Heritage
Guardian Royal Exchange Charitable Trust
Honourable Society of Gray's Inn
The Leverhulme Trust
London International Stock Exchange
National Westminster Bank plc
The Pasold Fund
Society of Antiquaries
Sun Alliance Group
The Wellcome Trust
S.G. Warburg & Co. Ltd

b) General:

Marc Fitch Fund
Mercers' Company
Midland Bank plc
Museum of London
 

The CMH Accounts for 1990-1 are published as part of the Accounts of the Institute of Historical Research in the Institute's Annual Report

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